MORAVIAN
GEOGRAPHICAL REPORTS
Vol. 19/2011
No. 4
Fig. 5: Flooding of Medard mine (Photo: Z. Lipovská) Fig. 1: Družba mine (Photo: Z. Lipovská)
Illustration related to the paper by. Ł. Gawor Illustration related to the paper by J. Kolejka, J. Klimánek and B. Fragner
Fig. 16: Extensive premises of the former woollen goods spinning factory in Dolní Chrastava
MORAVIAN GEOGRAPHICAL REPORTS
EDITORIAL BOARD
Bryn GREER-WOOTTEN, York University, Toronto Andrzej T. JANKOWSKI, Silesian University, Sosnowiec Karel KIRCHNER, Institute of Geonics, Brno
Petr KONEČNÝ, Institute of Geonics, Ostrava Ivan KUPČÍK, University of Munich
Sebastian LENTZ, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Leipzig
Petr MARTINEC, Institute of Geonics, Ostrava Walter MATZNETTER, University of Vienna Jozef MLÁDEK, Comenius University, Bratislava Jan MUNZAR, Institute of Geonics, Brno Philip OGDEN, Queen Mary University, London Metka ŠPES, University of Ljubljana
Milan TRIZNA, Comenius University, Bratislava Antonín VAISHAR, Institute of Geonics, Brno Miroslav VYSOUDIL, Palacký University, Olomouc Arnošt WAHLA, University of Ostrava
Jana ZAPLETALOVÁ (editor-in chief), Institute of Geonics, Brno
Georgette ZRINSCAK, University Sorbonne, Paris
EDITORIAL STAFF
Bohumil FRANTÁL
Tomáš KREJČÍ, technical editor
Zdeněk NOVOTNÝ, technical arrangement Martina Z. SVOBODOVÁ, linguistic editor
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NOVPRESS s.r.o., nám. Republiky 15, 614 00 Brno © INSTITUTE OF GEONICS ASCR, v.v.i. 2010
ISSN 1210-8812
Articles:
Foreword……….…... 2 Jaromír KOLEJKA, Martin KLIMÁNEK, Benjamin FRAGNER POST-INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE: THE CASE OF THE LIBEREC REGION, CZECH REPUBLIC……. 3 (Post-industriální krajina: Příklad Libereckého kraje, Česká republika)
Petr KLUSÁČEK, Tomáš KREJČÍ, Josef KUNC, Stanislav MARTINÁT, Eva NOVÁKOVÁ THE POST-INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE
IN RELATION TO LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC……….. 18 (Vztah lokální samosprávy k post-industriální krajině na území České republiky)
Pavel RAŠKA, Karel KIRCHNER
ASSESSING LANDSCAPE CHANGES IN A REGION AFFECTED BY MILITARY ACTIVITY AND URANIUM MINING (PRAMENY MUNICIPALITY AREA,
WESTERN BOHEMIA, CZECH REPUBLIC):
A MULTI-SCALE APPROACH ……….. 29 (Hodnocení změn v krajině v regionu postiženém vojenskou aktivitou a těžbou uranu (Prameny, západní Čechy, Česká Republika): víceúrovňový přístup)
Zdeňka LIPOVSKÁ
OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE CHANGE OF A POST-MINING REGION – CASE STUDY OF THE SOKOLOV–EAST MICROREGION
(CZECH REPUBLIC) ……… 38 (Příležitosti pro přeměnu hornického regionu – případová studie Mikroregion Sokolov-východ, Česká republika) Barbara VOJVODÍKOVÁ, Michal POTUŽNÍK, Radka BÜRGERMEISTEROVÁ
THE DATABASE ON BROWNFIELDS IN OSTRAVA (CZECH REPUBLIC): SOME APPROACHES
TO CATEGORIZATION ………. 50 (Databáze brownfieldů v Ostravě (Česká republika): přístup ke kategorizaci)
Łukasz GAWOR, Andrzej T. JANKOWSKI, Marek RUMAN POST-MINING DUMPING GROUNDS AS GEOTOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN THE UPPER SILESIAN COAL BASIN AND THE RUHR DISTRICT.……….. 61 (Posttěžební skládky jako geoturistické atrakce v Hornoslezské uhelné pánvi a v Porůří)
FOREWORD
The coming into existence of the post-industrial society at the end of the 20th century brought forward the issue
of studying the industrial heritage. The industrial heritage is not comprehended narrowly as a set of objects and sites created and then abandoned by industries but rather as a bequest – both positive and negative – of the former industrial society. In terms of research, the industrial heritage was taken charge of by architects and town planners in some western countries who had become aware in time of its significance comparable with the cultural, artistic and architectonic heritage of cities and rural areas from the pre-industrial era. Contrary to agriculture, forestry, water management or town planning, industries had never been large-scale users of the geographic environment. In spite of the fact, they affected landscape structures and appearance of the territory either directly by their operations or indirectly through their requirements. Only in the two last decades the industrial heritage becomes the subject of interest for geographic sciences namely in traditional industrial countries where it is most endangered by the transformation of economy and society. Thus, spatial aspects of the industrial heritage relate to all geographic disciplines. The studies are focused not only on various patterns of the spatial distribution of brownfields but also on industrial and related urban, montane, stream and other relief forms, climate changes in industrial areas, transformation of soils, occurrence of abandoned premises of the former industrial society, not only industries, changes in the perception of sites and objects of the industrial heritage, attitudes of developers and regional authorities.
This number of the Moravian Geographical Reports brings articles exploring a number of geographic aspects of the industrial heritage, resp. industrial society in the contemporary landscape.
1. Introduction
The Liberec Region in the north of the Czech Republic, the second smallest Czech region after the Capital of Prague, covers 3,163 km2 and has
approximately 450,000 inhabitants (in 2009). It is constituted by four districts: Liberec, Jablonec nad Nisou, Semily and Česká Lípa. The region is situated peripherally (Fig. 1) at the edge of the Bohemian Basin in the border mountains, and partly reaches
beyond them to the Lužická Nisa River basin up to the
northern forefront of the Czech Highlands. It owes its peripheral location to the separation of both Lusatian regions from the Bohemian Kingdom during the Thirty Years’ War in 1635 as well as to the separation of a major part of Silesia after Prussian-Austrian wars in 1740–42, 1744–45 and 1756–63. Wars had weakened the position of Czechs in the region and resulted in a consequent Germanization which peaked at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting with the
beginning of the 19th century, numerous areas in the
region became subject to intensive industrialization, and the period was marked with a transition from manufacturing glass and textile (linen) to large-scale industrial production. Owing to its natural conditions (mountain region, high-quality glass sands, vast forests,
POST-INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE: THE CASE
OF THE LIBEREC REGION, CZECH REPUBLIC
Jaromír KOLEJKA, Martin KLIMÁNEK, Benjamin FRAGNER
Abstract
Procedures used in defining post-industrial landscapes in the Liberec Region, Czech Republic, their classification and standardization using available data sources and GIS technology, are discussed in this article. Data on the distribution of brownfields (including contaminated sites, industrial constructions of architectural heritage, mining points and areas, human-made landforms, industrial and landfill sites) were used for analysis.
Shrnutí
Post-industriální krajina: Příklad Libereckého kraje (Česká repulika)
V příspěvku je demonstrován postup vymezování postindustriálních krajin na území Libereckého kraje,
jejich klasifikace a typizace za využití dostupných datových zdrojů a technologie GIS. Ke zpracování byla použita data o rozmístění brownfields, kontaminovaných míst, architektonických objektech průmyslového dědictví, těžebních bodech a plochách, montánních antropogenních tvarech reliéfu, průmyslových
a skládkových areálech
Key words: post-industrial landscapes, data sources, identification, typology, GIS solutions, Liberec Region, Czech Republic
metal ores, brown coal deposits) and the neighbouring Saxon and Prussian, later German markets, it offered favourable environment to industries which utilized natural resources effectively. In the second half of the 19th century the region was connected to
Austro-Hungarian and German railroad networks and its industrial production experienced another boom. Massive industrialization continued until World War I. By then the region had highly specialized in glass and textile productions (processing particularly imported raw materials – cotton). Engineering played a lesser role at the time.
Economic crises alternated with periods of prosperity. The early 1930s proved particularly critical, as the region suffered from global economic crisis effects. The crisis had a major impact on the local glass and textile industries. Its effects combined with the reluctance of the central government in Prague to tackle local problems resulted in the spreading of Nazism among the predominantly German inhabitants. Following the Munich Dictate in 1938, most of the region was separated from Czechoslovakia, its Czech inhabitants were forced to move out, yet the region enjoyed a period of relative economic prosperity within the
militarized Third Reich. The Potsdam Conference at the close of World War II initiated the resettlement of most German inhabitants to Germany and the return of Czechs from inland Czechoslovakia to the region. However, the numbers of inhabitants outside big towns did not match the pre-war population density. Rural areas in the borderland regions thus suffered from even more intensive depopulation than those in the inland. Not all businesses were fully reactivated in the post-war years. Industrial modernization launched in the 1970s resulted in abandoning of old production and service industrial facilities. The process culminated in the 1990s after a not very successful economic privatization which took place in the country. The collapse of some industrial companies was accompanied by the demise of numerous cultural, educational, trade and storage facilities whose existence was conditioned by industrial support. Demilitarization did not affect only facilities which until 1991 had been operated by the Soviet Army but also those belonging to the Czech Army. The abandoned buildings and sites tend to be characterized by the presence of un-remediated chemical contaminations. The existence of the post-industrial landscape is indisputable. The challenge is to localize it with maximum accuracy and to provide data necessary for the decision making on its future. The paper aims to document possibilities for identification, mapping, classification and typology of post-industrial landscape on the example of a selected region of the Czech Republic and thus to demonstrate the utilization of available data and processing technologies for the purposes of objective delineation on this landscape type to allow planning and gain deeper knowledge.
2. Current knowledge of the post-industrial
landscape
The existence of the post-industrial landscape is a generally accepted fact of the contemporary world. However, its scientific research still fails to meet requirements. In all probability, the primary research initiative can be accredited to architects studying industrial heritage buildings. Historical industrial architecture has been attracting the attention of professionals since the 1970s. Industrial architecture became the centre of attention due to rapid structural changes in western industrial economies which resulted in closing down of a number of businesses whose facilities no longer met operational standards but whose architectural value was high. Looming demolition of such buildings triggered response from the general public, yet conclusive plans of action usually failed to be agreed on. Societies studying and conserving the most valuable buildings as industrial heritage were established in developed industrial countries. Their focus tends to be regional and is restricted to specific interest areas (e.g. Cuffley Industrial Heritage Society in England, The Scottish Industrial Heritage Society in neighbouring Scotland or The Industrial Heritage Archives of Chicago’s Calumet Region USA). Some societies (Research Centre for Industrial Heritage of the Czech Technical University in Prague) gained academic status or even gained considerable reputation both nationally and internationally (The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage -TICCIH). In 2003, the Nizhny Tagil Charter for the Industrial Heritage was published by TICCIH. It draws attention to the fundamental significance of industrial heritage for the human culture, whether in urban centres or open landscapes (Loures, 2008).
The spatial aspect of industrial heritage, whether presented in the context of industrial or post-industrial landscapes, did not become the centre of attention until some two decades later. At the time, the synchoric and synergic relations not only among industrial buildings but also the accompanying complexes of facilities and sites (transport, residential, service, etc.) began to be taken into consideration as part of changes caused by industry in individual components of the geographical environment, both natural and social. Industrially formed landscapes are classified by M. Antrop (2005) among landscapes of revolutionary periods. Such landscapes are formed quickly and disappear quickly as a result of technological and social changes and war conflicts. The industrial landscape, which has a significant to dominant impact on landscape character, structure and function, is usually studied in close relation to the urban landscape. Industrial or post-industrial landscapes may form “islands” within cities and thus become epicentres of future reconstruction and functional changes (Gospodini, 2006). The existing practical implementation of knowledge gained through industrial and post-industrial landscape research can be traced particularly in the urbanized metropolitan landscapes of Western Europe, North America, New Zealand or Japan (Hall, 1997; Whitehand, Morton, 2004; Loures, 2008).
However, industrial landscapes are not necessarily purely urban. Industrial buildings, facilities and associated infrastructure are frequently situated outside the settlement centres (Hayes, 2006) and yet remain dominant within the surrounding landscape. Industrial landscapes are often identified with landscapes affected by large-scale surface mining of raw materials (mostly fuel materials – coal, crude oil, peat, or building materials – gravels, sands, rock or some metal ores) (Germany – Hüttl, 1998; Czechia – Sklenička, Charvátová, 2003; Vráblíková, Vráblík, 2007; Spain – Conesa, Schulin, Nowack, 2008; Poland – Dulias, 2009). Areas affected by underground or surface coal mining outside urban centres thus represent “rural” industrial spaces with associated facilities of the energy and metallurgical industries (Ruhrland, Lorraine, Lower Lusatia, Upper Silesia, Ore Mountains piedmont). These “urban” and “rural”, once industrial landscapes, have undergone a spontaneous transformation into post-industrial landscapes through mere de-industrialization, i.e. through stopping the industrial production, abandoning industrial facilities or their transformation for other purposes. Only rarely have the coordinated efforts of the state, NGOs and private organizations led to targeted transformation of extended areas into contemporary post-industrial landscapes. Examples of such efforts can be seen in larger areas in the Ruhrgebiet (Emscher-Park –
Fragner, 2005; Wehling, 2006), Wales (the vicinity of Blaenavon town as the UNESCO World Heritage Site – Rogers, 2006), or England (the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire – Ling, Handley, Rodwell, 2007; London Area – Holden, 1995).
Although the term “post-industrial landscape” has become frequented in the specialized literature and various measures concerning its future are seriously considered, its geographical definition (delimitation and content) remains vague and indefinite (see Loures, 2008). In case of Slovenia (Hladnik, 2005), the industrial landscape as a special landscape type is defined according to the ratio of industrial areas (registered in the CORINE) project within the entire area of a cadastre. According to Ch. Ling, J. Handley and J. Rodwell (2007), any area significantly affected by mining (on example of the Dearne Valley) and showing numerous abandoned buildings, brownfields but also subject to rehabilitation programmes and requiring other than conventional approach for the decision making on its future can be considered a post-industrial landscape (Bloodworth, Scott, McEvoy, 2009). T. Stuczynski, et al. (2009) developed an original concept for the geographical identification of post-industrial regions in EU. They implemented the CORINE LC 2000 database which registers industrial, mining and waste disposal sites, without differentiating facilities within these categories that are or are not in operation. Every pixel of 100 × 100 m located in the centre of a movable window of 5 × 5 km (in ERDAS system) over a CORINE map was considered a post-industrial site, provided that a pixel with a waste deposit or a mining site occurred within the square. The authors drew on the premise that until 1970 the traditional industry had always been accompanied by waste deposits and mining sites. Post-industrial areas are then constituted by thus defined post-industrial areas extended to include waste and mining sites. Their area was recalculated per area of a given NUTS-x in EU-27. If the ratio amounted to a minimum of 0.3% of the region’s size, it was defined as post-industrial and subjected to further verification through the statistical evaluation of social and economic data. A total of six types of post-industrial regions (Type 1 Eastern transitional industrial, socially and economically weak, Type 2 Western, economically and socially strong (medium density of post-industrial sites), Type 3 Western, economically and socially strong (high density of post-industrial sites), Type 4 Southern, socially and economically weak, Type 5 Urban, Type 6 Western, socially weak) were identified within the EU-27 area (on NUTS- 3s as reference areas). Another aspect of the post-industrial landscape is vegetation succession into former industrial or other abandoned areas. Among
other things, this spontaneous process has initiated the establishment of a new scientific discipline, restoration ecology, which studies these phenomena (Naveh, 1998). In the post-industrial landscape thus appears and prospers an “industrial nature” (Cílek, 2002) or a “new wilderness” (Lipský, Weber, Šantrůčková, 2010) as a landscape segment left to its spontaneous development regardless of the original, purely human-conditioned situation.
Apart from the above-listed exceptions, the spatial aspects, definition, classification and typology of post-industrial landscapes remain outside the focus of research. Descriptions of individual studied areas were developed, which was essential for their protection and further planning. Conservation of such areas was timely, as rehabilitation measures, although motivated by efforts to achieve such landscapes’ ecological and social rehabilitation, would have resulted in disappearance of this type of cultural heritage. Yet, it is apparent that knowledge of various post-industrial landscape types is an important factor in the process of adopting stances on this subject within the decision making sphere and investors as well as in forming opinions of the general public. A prerequisite for considering the future of post-industrial landscapes is their highly exact definition, localization and description and consequent classification and typology. Individual post-industrial landscape types then may be subjected to measures which are standardized to a certain degree.
3. Definition characteristics of post-industrial
landscapes
Post-industrial landscape is a legacy of the Industrial Revolution. Landscapes initially directly and indirectly created and now abandoned by industries are characterized by a number of specific physiognomic, structural and functional attributes which represent relics of the past industrial era. While “recent” in functional industrial landscapes, these characteristics are “fossil” in post-industrial landscapes. The characteristics are valid for all contemporary landscape structures.
The description of post-industrial landscape attributes may be related to individual structures of the contemporary cultural landscape (natural – primary, economic – secondary, human – tertiary and spiritual – quaternary). These structures affect one another strongly in the contemporary landscape, which means that changes in one of them tend to trigger changes in the remaining structures. All the structures demonstrate logical territorial differentiation of the landscape’s building components. Detailed descriptions
of these structures and their characteristics in a post-industrial landscape are listed in the following tables (Tab. 1, 2, 3 and 4). Needless to say, the post-industrial landscape is a descendant of the industrial landscape. While objects and processes shaping the industrial landscape are active and recent, the very same objects and processes are considered passive (being subject to contemporary processes of disintegration, conversion or extinction) and fossil (their origin dates back to an era different from the one in which the given post-industrial landscape exists) within the post-industrial landscape. Although data on long-term air pollution in post-industrial landscapes can be obtained in the Czech Republic thanks to a dense network of measuring stations, T. Stuczynski´s, et al. (2009) statement that post-industrial regions are characterized by this attribute particularly in places where rehabilitation measures have not been taken yet may be sufficient at this point. For that matter, H. Svatoňová, V. Navrátil and I. Plucková (2010) point out the same in their study of post-industrial landscape in the Oslavany region. A number of data listed in Tab. 2 as supported by information provided by databases must be interpreted from raw data on waste deposits, chemical contamination, brownfields, mining subsidence areas, etc.
Similar to Tab. 2, data on the listed abandoned facilities were obtained through the special-purpose interpretation of data from available databases. Protected buildings are listed in a special database. Social and demographic characteristics (e.g. on unemployment) were not used at this processing stage. All data were converted to allow processing in GIS SW.
4. Material and methods
The process of systematic research, mapping, classification and typology of post-industrial landscapes in the Liberec Region (Fig. 2) encompasses selecting suitable data sets, their analysis and interpretation, necessary adjustments for GIS technology, followed by processing and result evaluation. Data sets suitable for the purposes of the project were obtained (Tab. 5). They draw on available public sources, commercially accessible data provided by companies operating in the Czech geo-information market as well as specialized databases of the Research Centre for Industrial Heritage of the Czech Technical University in Prague.
4.1 Justification of selection and evaluation of the used data, special purpose oriented interpretation
Basically every implemented data set required a specific approach and interpretation for the project’s purposes.
Tab. 1: Post-industrial landscape characteristics indicated by natural components parameters (underlining – these characteristics were supported with relevant data in further processing)
Tab. 2: Post-industrial landscape characteristics indicated by parameters of the economic structure parameters (underlining – these characteristics were supported with relevant data in further processing)
Tab. 3: Post-industrial landscape characteristics indicated by parameters of the human structure parameters (underlining – these characteristics were supported with relevant data in further processing)
Landscape factor (Natural structure
components)
Post-industrial landscape
geological environment abandoned mining sites, non-reclaimed waste deposits, deposits of material subject to recycling and pro-cessing, chemical contamination of the rock environment, surface and underground mining facilities relief anthropogenic relief forms subject to natural destruction, division or reshaping
atmosphere dust and smell pollution, radioactive and uncontrolled chemical contamination
water abandoned and unmaintained hydraulic engineering facilities with residual contamination, rehabilitation water objects, water courses changed by humans
soil primitive soils at initial stage of regeneration, chemical soil contamination
biota pioneer natural seeding tree vegetation, ruderal and segetal vegetation on non-natural ground energy passive energy impact of degenerating and dilapidating man-made objects and surfaces
Landscape factor (Economic structure
components)
Post-industrial landscape
industrial buildings and sites abandoned industrial facilities, unused or converted to non-production purposes, not protected transport facilities and sites abandoned transport facilities and sites, unused or converted to non-transport purposes housing facilities and areas abandoned buildings, squatters and homeless quarters, shelters of illegal immigrants or criminals service facilities abandoned service facilities, including those converted to other purposes
agricultural facilities abandoned agricultural facilities and areas, including those converted to non-farming purposes, originally constructed to supply industrial working class
military facilities and areas abandoned military facilities and areas, including those converted to non-military purposes water management facilities abandoned, non-operating, unmaintained and derelict water management facilities
mining facilities and sites abandoned and to other purposes converted mining facilities, unused and abandoned waste dumps
Landscape factor (Human structure
components)
Post-industrial landscape
places of worship abandoned and (un)maintained places of worship and cemeteries
cultural facilities cultural facilities built in times of industrial heyday, now used by different range of clients or abandoned educational facilities educational facilities built in times of industrial heyday, abandoned
public administration facilities administrative facilities built in times of industrial heyday sports, leisure, entertainment
and catering facilities and areas sports, leisure, entertainment and catering facilities built in times of industrial heyday, abandoned healthcare facilities healthcare facilities built in times of industrial heyday
Landscape factor
(Spiritual structure components) Post-industrial landscape
positively perceived buildings and areas positively perceived buildings and areas which date back to or commemorate the heyday and development of industry and industrial society
negatively perceived buildings and areas derelict buildings and areas with bad reputation which date back to or commemorate the heyday and development of industry and industrial society
Tab. 4: Post-industrial landscape characteristics indicated by parameters of the spiritual structure parameters
No. Data source administratorSource Selected properties industrial heritageRelation to Implementation
1 ZABAGED – basic set of geographical data Czech Office for Sur-veying, Mapping and Cadastre
1:10 000, polygons, S-JTSK
mining sites, industrial sites, waste deposits, mine dumps
upon concluded genera-lization it is necessary to separate post-indu-strial sites and wrap polygon in buffer
2 CORINE Land Cover 2006 Ministry of the Envi-ronment of the Czech Republic 1:50 000, polygons, WGS 84, min. area 25 ha industrial units – class 121, mineral extraction sites – class 131, dump sites – class 132
good, post-industrial sites must be separated, polygon enwrapped in buffer
3 National inventory of contaminated sites CENIA- state organi-zation
localization of centres according to coordina-tes obtained in field through GPS technolo-gy, S-JTSK points
chemical contamination buffer-enwrapped points
4 Czech brownfields catalogue Czechinvest - state organization approx. 1:10 000, points, S-42
brownfields according to their original use, site catalogue with localization according to settlements or addresses
buffer-enwrapped points
5 undermined areas Czech Geological Survey
approx. 1:50 000 polygons and points S-JTSK, (min. area 4 km2 as area, smaller than a point)
undermined areas and points
good in sites excee-ding 4 km2, extract
from the undermined areas DB, polygons and points enwrapped in buffer 6 urbanized metropolitan areas of over 50,000 inhabitants ARC ČR 500, own interpretations of aerial photographs
built-up areas of resi-dential, production and service character
mix of industrial and post-industrial land-scape objects within dominant urbanized metropolitan landscape
utilizable as a mask for filtering areas whose landscape character is defined by the metropolis, not the industrial heritage
7 district towns Czech Statistical Office cadastres of district towns
enables separation of the towns’ urban landscape from the remaining area
delimitation of district town areas according to a code in attribute table
8 industrial heritage buildings
Research Centre for Industrial Heritage of the Czech Technical University in Prague
GPS localization of the buildings’ gravity po-ints in an Excel table
preserved industrial ar-chitecture monuments
alongside localization, the original purpose of the building is listed
From the extensive CORINE project database for the area of the Czech Republic were selected only relevant types of sites which are or may be related to a post-industrial landscape. The relevant categories were 121 (Industrial or commercial units), 131 (Mineral extraction sites) and 132 (Dump sites). While categories 131 and 132 were adopted for further processes without changes, category 121 was subjected to selection. The latter involved selecting only such industrial units which contained a minimum of one brownfield. However, not even this method of selection does not safeguard reliably that the given unit represents merely a brownfield and that none of its parts are used for industrial production at the same time. Similar uncertainty is associated with categories 131 and 132, where usually one part of the unit tends to be active rather than fossil, as the definition of the post-industrial landscapes requires. The above-listed method of data
selection and processing is thus conventional and the obtained results may be subject to certain errors. ZABAGED, a 1:10 000 scale database of the Czech Office for Surveying Mapping and Cadastre, encompasses over 40 data layers in vector form. One of the layers includes mountain (mining) relief forms, which represent indicators of post-industrial landscapes. The database records only larger forms (with respect to scale) which mostly originated in the time of industrialization until present. Within the area of the Liberec Region such forms are recorded only on several sites in the western Giant Mountains (Krkonoše Mts.), close to the town of Semily and in the foothills of Mt. Ještěd.
A slightly problematic method is determination of built-up areas in large towns. The project Landscape Atlas of the Czech Republic based on a map manuscript
Fig. 2: Main processing methods applied in the process of identification, classification and typology of post-industrial landscapes of the Liberec Region
called “Contemporary Landscape Regions” yields a data layer of towns over 50,000 inhabitants (by J. Kolejka, A. Hynek, P. Trnka). The cadastre database of the Czech Statistical Office provides data on cadastres of only district towns (as type of units of the given category in the attribute table). However, this does not mean that they encompass only built-up areas. It is not a drawback in the given context, as the concept of post-industrial landscapes does not deal with the existence of built-up areas, apart from building brownfields and architectural industrial heritage.
The Czech brownfields catalogue operated by state company Czechinvest comes in two basic forms. The general public has access to a database which encompasses approximately 800 items within the Czech Republic. The second database encompasses approximately 2,500 items and is accessible only to state administration officials, having not been made available for the purposes of the project. The obtained results (definition of post-industrial landscape) thus draw only on the publicly accessible database, which may restrict them to a certain degree. However, it must be stated that the occurrence of brownfields significantly correlates with the occurrence of old chemical loads (contaminated sites) and major errors are thus not to be taken into account. Original data on brownfields were obtained in tables. Their association with concrete geographic locations was made according to address points and the Czech Republic ortophotomap which provided the coordinates. Only in exceptional cases, when the address was incomplete, the brownfields’ location was related to the given cadastre’s gravity point as a compromise.
For the purposes of creating the Czech Republic Landscape Atlas, the Czech Geological Survey provided a number of data layers related to undermined areas. The Landscape Atlas of the Czech Republic published them and consequently used them in this task. Individual data layers differ in size categories of the subsidence areas (sites exceeding 4 km2 , sites
of less than 4 km2 as points) and in age of the units’
origin (for the project’s purposes, only sites and points representing mining subsidence areas developed in the 19th and 20th centuries were used). The two
following data layers on mining subsidence were thus used for further processing: mining subsidence areas (polygon layer) and mining subsidence sites (point layer), both vectorized from the map already published in the Landscape Atlas.
The data set of industrial architecture buildings representing industrial heritage was obtained through the selection of relevant data from an extensive database provided by the Research Centre for
Industrial Heritage of the Czech Technical University in Prague. An Excel table (xls) encompassing the given characteristics of architectural objects (particularly factory production and administrative buildings, as well as some transport facilities – bridges or railway stations) together with terrain-collected GPS coordinates of the objects’ gravity points were uploaded in the ArcGIS v.9.2 system and consequently converted to a database table in dbf. format. According to geographical coordinates it was then possible to cartographically visualize the contents of other attribute columns and to process the data cartographically.
Data on the contaminated sites regardless of their origin included in the National Inventory of Contaminated Sites were provided by state organization CENIA which comes under the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic. Apart from the data on the contaminated sites it also encompasses the information on waste deposits (regardless of the fact whether the deposits have a contamination effect or not), as collected by the Czech Geological Survey. The data were initially geographically organized according to administration areas of municipalities with extended competences and all thematic data were complemented with accurate location in geographical coordinates. The database’s drawback was the fact that identical data sometimes occurred under different administration areas. In the course of combining the component sets into a unified database for the entire Czech Republic, the errors were discovered and the duplicity was removed. Based on thematic data accompanying the information on individual sites, it is usually possible to detect the contamination source in the given site (production or other company as well as the production sphere). In places the records were limited to a simple statement that the given waste deposit is registered by the given organization.
4.2 Data Integration in GIS
Owing to the fact that the required geodata come in various formats, cartographic projections and coordinate systems, it was necessary to formally integrate them into a shape file for further processing in GIS SW from ESRI ArcGIS v.9.2. All files were converted into the S-42 coordinate system. The system allows smooth north-south orientation of map outputs without the need to demonstrate cardinal points in maps by a compass rose. Although the ArcGIS SW v.9.2 allows a simultaneous processing of geo-referenced data of different data formats, different cartographic projections and different coordinate systems, a unification of all these parameters proved useful particularly at the classification and typology stages of geo-data processing, when a unified if extensive attribute table was required.
4.3 Data Conversion
In terms of topology, the presented available and implemented data fall into two categories:
• point data (only geographic coordinates of the studied objects’ gravity points are known): brownfields, old chemical loads, small-scale mining subsidence areas, industrial heritage buildings (Figs. 3, 4 and 5); the attached attribute table allows users to determine or to extrapolate data on the type of the object, its origin and possibly also its size),
• polygon data (geographic coordinates describe refractive points of the objects’ borders): industrial areas, mining and waste sites, human made mining land forms, outlines of towns exceeding 50,000 inhabitants and of district towns cadastres (Fig. 6); the attached attribute table allows users to determine data on the objects’ type, origin and others.
4.4 Data Processing
It is obvious that the concentrations of relevant point objects and their possible connection to the polygonal objects serve as sufficient indicators of
post-industrial landscapes (post-industrial areas in general). The question remains when the distance between the individual point objects becomes short enough to be included in a single common area. Opinions on this matter may differ among experts of various fields. Nevertheless, the points (and similarly also the areas) must represent cores of the potential post-industrial areas.
D. Hladnik (2005) distinguishes forest landscape cores which cannot be situated less than 300 m from a given forest unit edge. The 300 m value refers to expert knowledge on a maximum migration range of plant species (e.g. wind dispersal of seeds). Forest landscape cores are thus wrapped in buffers (buffer zones or impact zones) of 300 m in width. Interviews conducted with inhabitants of the studied post-industrial areas of the Rosice-Oslavany (South Moravian Region, 20 km west of Brno) and Kamenice regions (Liberec Region, 20 km east of Liberec) revealed a certain consensus about a tolerable distance of unpleasant objects (a minimum of 500 m). Naturally, this distance is purely subjective and without a certain degree of convention cannot be applied to the impact
Fig. 3: Liberec Region – brownfields Fig. 4: Liberec Region – chemical loads
Fig. 5: Liberec Region – industrial heritage Fig. 6: Liberec Region – industrial, mining and waste dump areas according to CORINE LC, undermined sites and areas and mining land forms
range of every brownfield, mining subsidence area, contaminated site, waste dump or extraction site. Without any doubt, different types of environment (geological and hydro-geological environments, terrain and surface layer of the atmosphere) will display various impact ranges and the forms of the given environment will affect the forms therein. A virtually infinite number of such combinations may occur and it is practically impossible to study individual points and areas and to delimit the impact range of a given object for every single place. For these reasons, including the uninformed opinions of people inhabiting areas around all points and areas, uniform impact zones of 500 m in width were established (Fig. 7). These zones are represented by buffers in GIS. Industrial and commercial areas (CORINE) are exception to the rule.
A qualified selection had to be conducted in the category of industrial commercial facilities. Only units within which or within 100 m of outside of which a minimum of one brownfield was located (maximum localization error of a common tourist GPS receiver) were selected for further processing. Thus selected units of class 121 were provided with an analogous buffer wide 500 m (Fig. 8).
All buffer-enwrapped units were then subjected to unification with the help of a relevant ArcGIS tool, whenever the overlapping or at least point contact of buffer zones made it possible (Fig. 9).
However, areas of large towns, in this particular case of district towns, had to be eliminated from the obtained results, as the visual and other effects of post-industrial sites within them disappear in the mosaic of contemporary land use and their current function in the given administrative centre. Within the region, the town of Liberec plays the role of regional metropolis as well as the formal status of a district town. Outside large towns, the universal effect of post-industrial units on the landscape cannot be denied. In a number of cases (in places of concentration of such studied objects) the impact can be dominant, both in terms of its physiognomy and the environment (Fig. 10).
4.5 Results
The result of processing geo-data indicating post-industrial areas is a set of sites of various shapes and sizes. However, only areas exceeding a certain size can be considered post-industrial landscapes. Determining the minimum size is a subjective task which can draw on the following indices:
• the minimum differentiated area must exceed the smallest area of mining subsidence, which amounts to 4 km2 originally, provided with a buffer,
• the most common size of cadastre within the Czech Republic (apart from the border regions and towns) is 4–6 km2; as a norm, this area is
considered the basic planning unit for territorial and landscape planning (e.g. for designing general plans of the territorial systems of ecological stability),
• approximately 5 km2 represent a commonly sized
small town where post-industrial areas may play a dominant role with respect to its appearance (perception) and planning,
• the Czech Republic represents a geo-morphologically varied area whose appearance changes after approximately 1-hour-walk, which may represent roughly 5 km route generally and approximately 4–6 km2 in wide valleys,
• the mean distance between rural settlements ranges from 3 km in old settlement areas in Bohemia to 7 km in Moravia; however, standard 5-km (or higher) distance between settlements may be considered here as well if we take into account mountain areas of the Czech Republic.
Fig. 7: Buffer impact zones of 500 m in width constructed around the points of contaminated sites, architectural industrial heritage, brownfields, mining subsidence areas, anthropogenic mining relief forms, extraction and dump sites
Fig. 8: Selection of industrial areas with brownfields and enwrapping them in 500-meter buffers
Although the indices selection may seem arbitrary, it still supports subjective and as such conventional selection of minimal extent for areas which could be denoted as “post-industrial landscapes”. This denotation is valid unlike the denotation of small-area sites which upon meeting the same criteria show smaller surface and thus can be defined as “post-industrial areas”, potential cores of future post-industrial landscapes, provided they are extended by inclusion of new indicator objects. Application of this conventional rule in the Liberec Region helped define post-industrial landscapes meeting the condition of a minimum 5 km2
extent (Fig. 11). For comparison purposes, post-industrial landscapes of double extent of 10 km2 were
determined, which is significant particularly for all-state comparison at the national level (Fig. 12).
It is obvious that post-industrial landscapes defined by the existing procedure come in rather bizarre shapes at times. The highly diverse shapes of delimited post-industrial landscapes are result of connected buffer
zones around individual post-industrial landscape indicator objects. Buffers around point objects made up particularly diverse shapes. The ArcGIS technology offers a tool “Simplify Polygon” (in toolbox Cartography Tools – Generalization) which implements several generalization algorithms. Experiments revealed that the “Bend Simplify” algorithm provides good results, as it maintains an object’s shape and reduces local extreme projections of the outline. Line smoothing was pre-set by selecting the so-called Reference Baseline in sections of 1,000 m. The resulting outlines of individual post-industrial landscapes (Fig. 13) are more acceptable in further use of results, particularly in the decision-making sphere. Sizes of sites within new (generalized) outlines remained virtually untouched. Thus delimited individual post-industrial landscapes which met the size criterion and simultaneously drew on (encompassed) a selection of all or some indicator objects were subject to classification for the purposes of defining post-industrial landscape types in the Liberec Region (Fig. 14).
Fig. 11: Identification of “post-industrial landscapes” according to the criterion of a minimum 5 km2 extent, smaller sites represent quality-wise similar but smaller “post-industrial areas”
Fig. 12: Comparative delimitation of post-industrial landscapes covering over 10 km2
Fig. 9: Unified areas indicating post-industrial units Fig. 10: Comparison of post-industrial units with the areas of district towns for the purposes of delimiting “rural” industrial landscapes
The classification itself draws on the knowledge of the proportional representation of factors which played an active role in the genesis of the given post-industrial landscape. The present land use or PIL structure will be studied in the future and included into the other ways of classification. Generally speaking, these include industrial and other activities (during the industrial period) which in the given territory left traces indicating post-industrial landscapes (see the processed data). Initially, the delimited areas were classified according to the proportional representation of polygonal elements – i.e. extraction sites, industrial sites, dump sites and human made mining land forms. Within the Liberec Region, most of these sites (apart from industrial-production facilities) are associated with mining activities. Even without implementing some of the exact methods of numerical taxonomy, it turned out that the identified post-industrial landscapes originated either dominantly from mining activities or from mining accompanied with other industrial, settlement or military activities. According to the significantly most numerous accompanying activities (data on which were obtained through inventory
of all industrial heritage objects, brownfields and contaminated sites), the second attribute “mining” was added to the primary term “post-industrial landscape” to describe the accompanying activity leading to the formation of the post-industrial landscape. In other cases (where mining activities were not recorded) the classification drew on the proportional representation of industrial and other activities. Upon distinct dominance of a given industrial activity, the said post-industrial landscape was labelled after it. If another activity was represented in a given post-industrial landscape together with a dominant one (numbers cannot be defined exactly – in a minimum of three cases), a two-word denomination was created in which the first word represents the dominant activity and the second the accompanying one (such case did not occur in the Liberec Region but the conditions were defined for other regions of the Czech Republic). If a higher number of different activities occurred in the given post-industrial landscape, it was classified as multi-departmental. Fig. 14 reveals that owing to their considerable territorial range, mining activities played a key role in the formation of post-industrial landscapes of the Liberec Region. Traditional regional industrial activities accompanying mining (textile and building industries, possibly also military activities) played a complementary role in the genesis of post-industrial landscapes. Other post-post-industrial landscapes of the Liberec Region – generally most numerous – are a result of traditional regional industrial activities – glass and textile industries (Figs. 15 and 16 – see cover p. 2), including their local combinations with wood processing, paper, toy-making and engineering industries. A total of 15 post-industrial landscapes of 7 types were identified in the Liberec Region, each of them covering over 5 km2 (4 covering over 10 km2).
5. Conclusion
Only characteristics representing human activities and their outcomes were used in the classification and typology of the Liberec Region post-industrial landscapes. As is apparent from the outline of implemented methods and individual steps, several weak parts can be spotted in the process. These include inputs in the processing process which introduce a considerable impact of the given researcher. The first weakness is the selection of indices and necessary data, which lack social and economic data among other things. However, these cannot be used before the stage of classification of already defined areas. More than 2,000 various localized data describing points and sites entering the processing procedure were employed in the process of identification. It is implausible to obtain the same spectrum of economic and social data for each of them.
Fig. 14: Post-industrial landscape types in the Liberec Region
Fig. 13: Comparison of original and generalized outlines of the Liberec Region’s post-industrial landscapes
The determination of buffer zone width around every interest object is also debatable. 500-meter buffers are to symbolize the given object’s spatial impact on its surroundings. In this case there was no other option but to use the above-mentioned procedure. Firstly, it enabled the transition of point data on area ones and thus objectify, to a certain extent, the process of finding “connected” concentrations of these points. It is not possible to individually assess the actual impact of every single point and area on their environment which offers a countless variety of possible shapes and sizes. However, a justification of the selected method is provided.
Another case of a subject entering the processing can be seen in the utilization of adopted size classification of identified areas, of which only those exceeding 5 km2 are
further classified as landscapes while the smaller ones are considered only as areas. In this case references to similar size criterion were made, regardless of the fact that they do not bear a direct relation to the solved issue.
A considerable weakness is inherent in the data themselves, their geometric and semantic quality. From the perspective of the processing process itself, particularly in the CORINE LC database, it is not possible to separate safely all the active and passive sites, i.e. indicators of industrial and post-industrial landscapes (see other comments by Balej, 2007). Yet, the adopted procedure (in the opinion of the authors) managed to remove from further processing such sites which provably do not represent post-industrial landscape indicators, i.e. post-industrial areas without brownfields. However, it must be taken into
Fig. 17: Geographic location of the Liberec Region post-industrial landscape types
Fig. 18: Contextualization of individual post-industrial landscape types within local types and terrain macro-forms in the Liberec Region
consideration that the used brownfields databases are not complete and as such cannot be fully replaced with data on contaminated sites and industrial heritage objects (regardless of their high mutual spatial correlation – highly similar occurrence of point and area concentrations).
Despite the above-mentioned weaknesses, the unquestionable strengths of the adopted method must be stressed. These lie in the possibility to replicate the procedure in other places and at another time, providing that similar data are available, which is possible in developed industrial countries. This procedure helps localize post-industrial landscapes and determines their outlines, which is crucial for any future decision making. Within thus determined boundaries it is possible to classify individual post-industrial landscapes and based on their type to consider possible measures in their future management. The planners require clear PIL outlining (including the size) and the description of the causes of the PIL origin (types and number of factors) as the necessary starting points for the future planning operations and the fund raising. One of the most frequent post-industrial landscape types in the Czech Republic, which was not defined and spatially delimitated prior to this project, is the post-mining landscape (Sklenička, Charvátová, 2003). Planning within this type of landscape involves creation of eco-stabilizing systems drawing on ecologically (and location-wise) most stable sites. Knowledge of where a given post-industrial landscape type is situated, of its extent, outline, size and internal characteristics gives one the opportunity to formulate projects necessary for its future planning. These may have a wide range
of application: protection of the said landscapes as natural and cultural heritage, various special-purpose revitalization, transformation and conversion, as well as denaturalization or removal of traces of old industrial and accompanying human activities.
Putting the identified types of post-industrial landscapes within their natural context, whether represented by their specific geographic location (Fig. 17) or positioning within the relief (Fig. 18) as the primary physiognomic parameter of any landscape (apart from human land use, which is taken into account by typology of the given post-industrial landscape to a certain degree but not entirely), offers another perspective of the issue.
It is becoming apparent that distribution of post-industrial landscapes within the Liberec Region is relatively regular as to the types of geographical location and their positioning within the terrain. It is evident that in the given region so-called “driving
forces” played an important role in the selection and distribution of industrial activities (apart from associations with produced raw materials and water energy sources) in accord with the regular distribution of favourable localization conditions which show little dependence on position and relief. The identified types of post-industrial landscapes in the Liberec Region thus may become subject to territorial planning, development of entrepreneurial and tourist activities as well as natural and cultural heritage conservation activities.
Acknowledgement
Definition, classification and typology of post-industrial landscapes of the Liberec Region was conducted in 2010 under the grant project “The Fate of Czech Post-Industrial Landscape” number IAA 300860903 supported by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (for
the years 2009–2011).
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Authors´ addresses:
Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Jaromír KOLEJKA, CSc.
Institute of Geonics, v.v.i., Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Branch Brno Drobného 28. 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
e-mail: [email protected]
Ing. Martin KLIMÁNEK, Ph.D.
Department of Geoinformation Technologies, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology Zemědělská 3, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
e-mail: [email protected]
Ph.Dr. Benjamin FRAGNER
Research Centre for Industrial Heritage FA CTU Prague Thákurova 9, 166 34 Praha 6, Czech Republic
THE POST-INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE
IN RELATION TO LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT
IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Petr KLUSÁČEK, Tomáš KREJČÍ, Josef KUNC, Stanislav MARTINÁT, Eva NOVÁKOVÁ
Abstract
The relation between local government and the post-industrial landscape is discussed in this article for a case study area in the Czech Republic, the Tanvald region (area with the spatial concentration of glass and textile industries before 1989). The situation significantly changed with the return of the market economy, when many industries were closed and it was necessary to find new modes of development for them. This research is based not only on the results of semi-structured interviews with representatives of local government (mayors) in the study area, but also uses selected statistical data and information collected during field research. The article concludes with a new typology of roles played by local government in the redevelopment process and with recommendations on how to improve decision-making processes associated with brownfield redevelopment.
Shrnutí
Vztah lokální samosprávy k post-industriální krajině na území České republiky
Článek se zabývá problematikou vztahu lokální samosprávy k objektům tzv. post-industriální krajiny na území České republiky a to na příkladu Tanvaldska (území s vysokou prostorovou koncentrací sklářského a textilního průmyslu před rokem 1989). Situace v tomto regionu se samozřejmě zásadně
změnila v období po návratu tržní ekonomiky, kdy došlo k uzavření mnoha průmyslových objektů a areálů, pro které bylo nutné hledat nové alternativy využití. Příspěvek vychází nejen z výsledků řízených rozhovorů, které se uskutečnily se starosty obcí v rámci studovaného regionu, ale je dále založen na analýze
vybraných statických dat a na poznatcích získaných přímo v průběhu terénního šetření. V závěru článek
přináší vlastní typologii rolí, kterou místní samosprávy sehrávají v procesu opětovného využití brownfields
a přináší doporučení, jakým způsobem zlepšit rozhodovací procesy.
Key words: brownfields, redevelopment, municipalities, mayors, Tanvald region, Czech Republic
1. Introduction
Issues of the post-industrial landscape and brownfield redevelopment in the Czech Republic have become very common after the collapse of the planned economy in the two decades after 1989. In the 1990s, the return of the market economy caused a decline or even collapse of many economic activities and, after 2000, the trends connected with increasing globalisation and Europeanisation had a huge impact on the further modification of traditional economic activities (especially with respect to the deindustrialisation process). One of the results of the afore-mentioned processes is the occurrence of derelict, abandoned, neglected and unused areas and buildings, which are known as brownfields. The issues connected with brownfields are given attention not only by scientists but also among political representatives
at different hierarchical levels (local, regional, national, EU), private entrepreneurs and citizens, because areas with brownfields often have huge impacts on their surroundings (especially economic, environmental and aesthetic impacts). On the one hand, the existence of brownfields usually brings not only risks (e.g., contamination of underground or surface waters, contamination of soils, increase in air pollution, spatial concentration of the social problems associated with homeless people, drug addicts, etc.), but also opportunities for future redevelopment. The brownfields are perceived as zones and locations suitable for future development projects, which is why the research on brownfields is popular not only among experts from different disciplines (e.g. economy, architecture, geography, sociology, urban planning, law, etc.) but also among other groups
of stakeholders (e.g. political representatives, entrepreneurs) actively participating in the decision-making processes related to redevelopment planning. In this context it is necessary to emphasize that the concrete redevelopment plans have usually both their supporters and their opponents, and the final way of brownfield redevelopment is influenced by decisions made by political representatives at different hierarchical levels (the mayors play the key role at municipal levels).
International research regarding brownfields has a longer tradition than the research activities in the Czech Republic, where the number of brownfields started to increase significantly in the period 1990– 2011. The developed countries with market economies (e.g. USA, UK, Canada) already have long-term experiences with the redevelopment of brownfields – for example the situation in Canada was analysed in detail by De Sousa (2001, 2003). Naturally, for the situation in the Czech Republic, it is useful to understand the broader context within the European Union, focussing on the experiences from other countries in Central Europe (e.g., Banzhaf, Netzband, 2004; Keil, Berg, 2003; Wiegandt, Reißing, 2000). Moreover, there could be very important experiences from the former Eastern Germany, where the economic shift from a centrally planned economy to a market economy occurred earlier than in the Czech Republic, and its impacts on spatial structures (especially large-scale deindustrialisation) were more significant than in the Czech Republic (for details, see Mehnert et al., 2005; Steinführer, 2006; Kabisch, 2004).
The huge variety of issues associated with the redevelopment of brownfields is also discussed in the Czech Republic. There are significant differences among Czech scientists, especially in how they deal with studying the issue of brownfields: one group of authors emphasizes the environmental dimensions of the problem (e.g., redevelopment of brownfields as a good alternative to urban sprawl – see for example Kirschner, 2006 or Srb, 2002); another group of authors perceives industrial brownfields as an important architectural heritage, which should be preserved for future generations (e.g., Fragner, 2005; Karásek, 2007). Other researchers deal with special kinds of brownfields (e.g., Komár, 1998 or Šilhánková, 2006 paid attention to the regeneration of military brownfields); analysis of the situation in specific sites or zones in which brownfields occur (Dařílková, 1998; Kuta, Kuda, Sedlecký, 2005; Kuta, Kuda, 2004); or on the relation between redevelopment and spatial planning (Vojvodíková, 2005). Other authors address the impacts on post-industrial society,
where according to Czech sociologist I. Možný (2002),
more than 50% of the labour force is working in the tertiary sector (services) and the importance of both the primary and secondary sectors (including all kinds of industries) is permanently decreasing.
In Czech geography, brownfields have been subject to research by geographers who were dealing with the transformation of industrial activities in the period after 1989: in this context the most important studies were published by I. Sýkorová (2007), J. Temelová and J. Novák (2007), V. Toušek and P. Tonev (2003), and J. Kunc (1999). Other groups of Czech geographers paid attention to brownfields together with the concept of so-called urban sprawl – for example O. Mulíček and I. Olšová (2002) or A. Létal, I. Smolová, Z. Szczyrba (2001). It is necessary to emphasize that the research focused on the relation between the use of brownfields and greenfields is popular not only among geographers, but a similar approach was used for example by Czech architect J. Jackson (see Jackson 2002, or Jackson and Garb, 2002), who is one of the co-founders of the non-profit organisation ‘Institute for sustainable spatial development of the settlements’ (details available on the web page: http:// www.brownfields.cz/), which aims to facilitate and to improve the redevelopment process by increasing the knowledge of selected groups of stakeholders.
2. Objectives and methods
Generally, it can be assumed that brownfield redevelopment in the Czech Republic is influenced by the interactions between different groups of stakeholders from the public, private and non-profit sectors (Fig. 1). The bodies and offices of public administration at different hierarchical levels (municipal, regional, national, and EU), however, often play a key role in the processes of brownfield redevelopment because they influence future spatial development by means of master plans, negotiations with owners and NGOs, investments of public money for preparation of brownfields for future commercial and non-commercial investments (especially decontamination and demolition of the abandoned buildings), and legislation, etc. At the national level, there is the ‘National Strategy of the Czech Republic for Regeneration of Brownfields’ (Národní strategie regenerace brownfieldů, 2008). This national strategy, which includes both short-term and long-short-term objectives and economic, legal and environmental educational frameworks for brownfield regeneration, is based on the research study of the agency of CzechInvest (see www.czechinvest.org). This study identified all kinds of brownfields (with the exemption of mining brownfields) in the territory of the Czech Republic with a size larger than 1 hectare
